My Rant About Rocky Helmet

by coolestman22 ~ April 29th, 2012.

Introduction

Hey, it’s me, coolestman22, with another article, this time it’s about a card that I feel is underrated. As you may have guessed from the title, it is Rocky Helmet. I played 2 copies of the card in my Zekkels list at Regionals because it was such an awesome tech. It came in really handy for me, I can say that. What I am going to do is rant about why Rocky Helmet is awesome in Zekeels, ReshiPhlosion, or any deck that doesn’t rely on EXP. Share or Dark Claw, really, except for Magnezone decks that already OHKO everything.

But first, if you don’t know what Rocky Helmet does, you should probably look at the pretty picture of Rocky Helmet on your right.

Now that you know what it does, I shall begin ranting:

1-120 damage, 130 HP
Rocky Helmet is awesome for the Zekeels matchup, because if they have a Zekrom BW with Eviolite, and they Bolt Strike, that puts them at 20, and you can hit them for 100, needing a PlusPower to complete the KO.

But with Rocky Helmet, that damage is already given to you, so you can use your Junk Arms on Catchers, Level Balls, Super Rods, Pokegears, or whatever you may need at the time.

It is also awesome for the Terrakion/Troll matchup. With Rocky Helmet, their Terrakions go down without needing a PlusPower, so you can keep up with the prize race easier. It also means Mewtwo only needs 3-4 energy to KO the Terrakion.

It helped me against ReshiPhlosion, too. When they were to Eviolite their Reshirams, I could simply negate that with Rocky Helmet, allowing me to OHKO the Reshirams.

2-OHKO Mewtwos (or Raikous, I guess) with Strong Volt
Everyone knows that you can’t play 2 PlusPower every turn, but you can theoretically by using Rocky Helmet. Rocky Helmet is cool because if you just Strong Volted, and your opponent has an active Mewtwo, and your Zekrom EX has a Rocky Helmet attached, your opponent has 4 choices:

1: Attack the Zekrom EX and pay the death penalty, giving up two prize cards
2: Don’t attack the Zekrom EX, and be Glinting Clawed for KO next turn
3: Burn resources trying to find a Catcher, and maybe get it, and maybe not, and if not leaving you with the two previous choices.
4: Retreat your active Mewtwo for another attacker.

This is a pretty tough decision. Any smart opponent would try to go for Option 3, but not all opponents are smart, first of all, if you’re not playing at the top tables, and Option 3 may or may not bail you out.

Also, keep in mind that your opponent may or may not have the resources in hand to get the Catcher. So option 3 might not always be an option. That leaves you with a “would you rather” type question

Option 4 isn’t perfect, either. A Mewtwo would have a two retreat cost (or 1 with Skyarrow Bridge), and they won’t necessarily have a Switch, or Junk Arm for Switch (even though if they had the Junk Arm they’d probably also have the Catcher in the discard pile) or if they do have the Junk Arm for Switch they might only have one other card in hand, or two, one of them being the crucial draw supporter that they don’t want to discard, or no hand at all (although you’ve probably won if that’s the case). If they do have the Switch, they might not have an attacker set up on the bench (you only get 4 DCE, and you might not have the Switch into Celebi or whatever) then they don’t have option 4.

A more risky opponent might have the Switch, but also has a Shuffle+Draw or Discard+Draw supporter, and would rather try for option 3 then use option 4. This risky opponent might not get the Catcher/Junk Arm, and be forced to attack right into the Zekrom EX, or be killed by Glinting Claw the following turn.

What I’ve noticed is that most of the time, I get two prizes out of this scenario. Not always will the opponent have the Catcher or another attacker, leaving the opponent with either A or B. I’ve noticed that most opponents choose A, which means you have an opportunity to get another free prize after that. Devoting two spaces of your deck to drawing three prizes in the course of an attack phase, and then another turn is a great option to have.

3-Win Mewtwo Wars

Let’s start this section with some math. 4×4=16, therefore 40×4=160. Mewtwo has 170 HP, meaning that Rocky Helmet can either be your PlusPower, or negate Eviolite, resetting it back to needing a PlusPower.

Mewtwo attacking a Mewtwo with Rocky Helmet can be even more suicidal, as you won’t need the third energy or PlusPower, as your extra damage has already been provided. Therefore, all you need to do to draw two prizes is to get a Mewtwo with either 2 energy or a Double Colorless. Then, the opponent might be forced to put 3 energy on their return Mewtwo, meaning that you only need 2 energy to draw two more prize cards. It can turn the Mewtwo prize race in your favor, equaling a PlusPower in the situation.

If the Mewtwo has an Eviolite attached, Mewtwo can just as easily play a PlusPower to get that extra damage if there is a Rocky Helmet attached. When your opponent’s Mewtwo war winner is negated, you gain an advantage in the Mewtwo war. It also greatly helps you to have a Rocky Helmet on your Mewtwo if they decide to attack with something else, such as Tornadus or Thundurus, the extra 20 damage means that the Tornadus’ moved energy or Thundurus’s discarded one is negated, so Mewtwo needs 3 energy or 2 and a PlusPower to kill the Tornadus or Thundurus.

4-Players Try To Go Around Rocky Helmet, and it Puts Pressure On Them.

I’ve noticed that when players play against Rocky Helmet, they try to avoid attacking the Pokemon with the Rocky Helmet and instead they Catcher around it (exceptions being stuff that is OHKOed, such as Zekrom BW and Mewtwo) so that means you can last longer. It also helps because if you have something like a Donphan Prime active with a Rocky Helmet attached, your opponent knows that to take it down, it will require a couple of attacks, or maybe even three. So the opponent would be more inclined to take cheap prizes instead of attacking straight into the Rocky Helmet. This means that Donphan will continue to use Earthquake, or maybe even build up a Heavy Impact, for a while.

Even in non-tank decks, this is extremely useful because Eviolite may increase the number of hits you can take, but Rocky Helmet decreases the number of hits you will take.

5-Rocky Helmet is Permanent, and Doesn’t Require an Attack.

Rocky Helmet lasts longer than PlusPower. With PlusPower, you play it, and it is discarded. It only is effective for the turn it is played. However, Rocky Helmet is permanent, so you can keep being bashed and still get 20 damage out of it every time. This isn’t something you get with PlusPower, and it’s something nice to have.

Also, if you play PlusPower and don’t attack that turn, it’s useless. But if you attach a Rocky Helmet, it’s useful still because you can bash something back for 20, even without attacking. That means that if you’re 2-shot, your opponent takes 40 damage, also, so you’re practically getting 4 PlusPower out of it.

6-Unlike PlusPower, it Doesn’t Increase Recoil.

This isn’t too much of a reason that Rocky Helmet is a cool card, but nevertheless it helps. When you play a PlusPower and you Bolt Strike, you do 50 recoil damage. However, Rocky Helmet is damage counters, so if Zekrom had a Rocky Helmet attached, it doesn’t take 20 extra recoil from it, and since it’s only the opponent’s active, you don’t hit yourself for 20. This is another reason why Rocky Helmet is kind of cool and is a good play, as PlusPower is the difference between having 80 HP left and 90 HP left, so Thundurus, Tornadus, and Cobalion wouldn’t KO it afterwards.

This may not be too big a reason, but it’s something that you should consider, and I believe that it may be enough to make you at least try out Rocky Helmet (which I suggest you do).

Conclusion

These are the reasons that I play 2 Rocky Helmet in my Zekeels build, and probably will for a while. Rocky Helmet is a nice overall card that is worth two spaces of your deck, and if you play it you can lower your PlusPower count if your deck is tight on space. It is an extremely underrated card that I believe is worth the time to test out, even if you don’t end up liking it. Rocky Helmet also puts a lot of pressure on your opponent, and might make them burn up resources trying to get the Catcher.

It’s an all-around cool card that I think should be put into every deck excluding Exp. Share decks, Dark decks with Dark Claw (as that pretty much is a Rocky Helmet), and Magnezone decks or OHKO decks (like Rayquaza-EX in the future) that don’t need it.

It can be used as Junk Arm for Super Rod against Durant, also, so it’s not completely useless there. You could also theoretically attach it to (unlikely) prevent Rotom snipes.

Thanks for reading, now I’m done. Please leave a comment below and leave your thoughts about Rocky Helmet, as it’s something I feel is very underrated.

Category: Card Discussion | Tags: , , , , ,